No rest in murder case

Published: Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 03:18 PM.

Resubmitting evidence

Cleveland County investigators are hoping the improvements in technology since Porter's death could lead to a break in the cold case.

"We're in the process this week of reviewing the evidence and (will) resubmit the evidence in hopes that...present day technology can give us a break in the case," said Sgt. Mark Craig, who oversees the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division.

Some of that evidence involves DNA.

"DNA (anaylsis) then was nothing like it is now," he said.

In order for the case to be solved, Craig said it would most likely take a confession or some type of evidence along with a confession.

He is perpetually happy, frozen in time as a 39-year-old man who will never grow stooped or gray.

In the 19 years since "Chuck" Porter was found in a rest stop utility closet, a bullet in his body, life has gone on without him.

The rest stop on I-85 just outside Kings Mountain was demolished.

The original investigators handling his case have moved on or retired.

Family members now rest beside him on a gentle rise in the cemetery at Mt. Zion Baptist Church just outside of Cherryville.

In the nearly two decades since his death, something else has changed.

Resubmitting evidence

Cleveland County investigators are hoping the improvements in technology since Porter's death could lead to a break in the cold case.

"We're in the process this week of reviewing the evidence and (will) resubmit the evidence in hopes that...present day technology can give us a break in the case," said Sgt. Mark Craig, who oversees the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division.

Some of that evidence involves DNA.

"DNA (anaylsis) then was nothing like it is now," he said.

In order for the case to be solved, Craig said it would most likely take a confession or some type of evidence along with a confession.

Two sketches were released shortly after the shooting based on witness accounts of two men who ran out of the building shortly after gun shots were heard.

The sketches were circulated but had little results.

Craig said there have been some "persons of interest" interviewed in the case but said he couldn't elaborate.

Investigators are cautious with how much information they release, wanting to give enough details to spur tips but not enough to jeopordize the case.

Cold case

The known facts of the Chuck Porter case are few.

Robbery is the motive behind the shooting, but law enforcement officers won't say if anything had been taken from Porter.

Two men were seen entering the building by several witnesseses and, shortly after, another custodian heard several pops, "like a breaker taking off" while cleaning the women's restroom, according to the original story in The Star.

When the woman went to investigate, she found Porter's body stuffed inside the closet, his hands bound with a cord.

The men were described as two black men and sketches made days after the murder showed one man with a flat top-style hair cut and the other with a ball cap worn backward.

Porter, who had been working for the N.C. Department of Transporation, was a custodian at the rest stop and had been called in to work that Sunday morning.